Intercellular synchronization of diffusively coupled astrocytes

TL;DR

This study investigates how astrocytes synchronize their calcium oscillations through diffusive coupling of molecules like Ca^{2+} and IP3, revealing that increased coupling molecules and neighboring cells enhance synchronization speed.

Contribution

It introduces a model of astrocyte synchronization via diffusive molecular coupling, highlighting the effects of coupling molecules and network topology on synchronization.

Findings

Synchronization improves with more coupling molecules.

More neighboring cells lead to faster information processing.

Cells exhibit coordinated behavior through diffusive coupling.

Abstract

We examine the synchrony of the dynamics of localized [Ca^{2+}]_i oscillations in internal pool of astrocytes via diffusing coupling of a network of such cells in a certain topology where cytosolic Ca^{2+} and inositol 1,4,5-triphosphate (IP3) are coupling molecules; and possible long range interaction among the cells. Our numerical results claim that the cells exhibit fairly well coordinated behaviour through this coupling mechanism. It is also seen in the results that as the number of coupling molecular species is increased, the rate of synchrony is also increased correspondingly. Apart from the topology of the cells taken, as the number of coupled cells around any one of the cells in the system is increased, the cell process information faster.